Following the Star
by Lady Elleth
Summary: A brief tale of Eowyn´s life - an AU set after the War of the Ring. No Faramir, no Legolas, no Mary Sue.


Disclaimer: The characters of LotR are not mine. They never will be. ´Nuff said.  
  
A/N: This is an AU. Slight twist of the book canon and no Faramir in here. But there is someone else. Try and guess...  
  
1.) Aragorn? MEEP! Nope. It is not him.  
  
2.) Legolas? *shakes head* wrong.  
  
3.) Boromir? Oh come on, we all know he is dead....  
  
Seems like you have to read to find out.  
  
Enjoy =)  
  
Following the Star  
  
I did not want to be the White Lady of Rohan. Not anymore. First, when I was a girl, it was fascinating. But when I grew older, I knew it was not. I always was to them like a flower of ice, growing on a window on a cold winter´s morning - that was something King Theoden once told me. Fragile, weak. More a girl than a woman, so everyone first thought of me. They knew not how it hurt to see the man, whom you loved like a father, slowly become more and more ill under the spell of Grima Wormtongue. For years this went on and I desperately sought for somebody to help me bear this, to love me. But no one did. No one dared. There were many who watched me from afar, worshipping me. But loving me? No. They dared not to touch the flower, afraid to melt the ice.  
  
And so I had no other choice than to be strong. The flower of ice did not melt. And suddenly everybody just saw nothing but my strength - they still worshipped me. And slowly but surely I despaired. There were nights I spent awake under the starlit sky of Rohan, praying to the Valar to send me hope. But no one knew of this.  
  
Yes, maybe I was strong on the outside. So strong that I destroyed myself inside... and one day, the wish to die came to my mind. I tried to find the death in battle, in a last, almost forsaken hope somebody would listen to my call for help. And somebody listened. Somebody understood. And yet, this form of help, this love was fleeting. It was a time full of bliss, full of beauty when he was with me, but now the sea should at last be between us forever. No. Not forever. I can not let this happen.  
  
The tall figure standing high on a cliff looked across the ocean, facing west, looking for the ship that had taken her lover away from her. He had had to go, she knew that. It was the last elven ship that bid the world goodbye and if he would not have sailed with it, he would have been forced to stay in Middle-earth. He would have been the last of a race that would be forgotten in a future not too far away. And nothing would await him here after she was gone. Nothing but loneliness and then, someday, death. She could not do this to him, she just could not ask him to be seperated from his kin forever. But still, she could not be with him anymore. It was something she knew, something she accepted. Or at least she thought she did.  
  
The sky was dark, almost black in the approaching night, but still she could see the storm-grey waves, colored like his eyes, rolling deep beneath her, crashing against the cliff on which she stood. Still she was facing westward, waiting for one last thing before she would fly. She was waiting for the first ray of Eärendil´s light to guard her way west. ´Just follow the star when I am gone` , she whispered; words he had told her a thousand times were now lost in the wind. Lost, but not forgotten.. and not unheard.  
  
The storm rose. The clouds´ edges were torn apart and a single ray of starlight came through, shining on the water, like the light that was in his eyes. And Èowyn ran, she jumped and she flew, with her arms spread like wings, down the cliff and into the sea.  
  
Many years later still tales were told of the love of Èowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan, and Elladan, son of Elrond Halfelven. In one tale it was said, that Ulmo, the Lord of Water, had mercy with the mortal woman and rescued her from the sea, like he once rescued Elwing, wife of Eärendil and that Éowyn, too, was given the chance to be reunited with her beloved. If this was the truth nobody ever knew... but many believed it, for her body had never been found.  
  
The End  
  
Loved it? Hated it? Tell me what you think.  
  
Suilad, LadyElleth 


End file.
